The 5 characteristics of highly effective leaders
The number of books on leadership could fill a small library. Books by academics, biographers, motivational speakers, sports stars, military leaders, CEO's ex-Presidents and the like, line the shelves of Dymocks, Angus & Robertson and Borders. There are enough leadership 'experts' and accompanying theories for a lifetime of reading.

The RCSA (Recruitment & Consulting Services Association) Owners and Managers Conference had leadership as it's core theme. Many speakers shared their thoughts on what defined excellent leadership and why it is important. The common message was clear- as an industry that is both high growth, and a large employer of Generation X and Generation Y, the impact and cost of poor leadership is enormous.

The template for a successful leader in the twentieth century was a decision maker and resource allocator who viewed employees as tools through which efficiency and productivity were extracted, like juice from a lemon. The leader for today's world of work treats an employee as a responsible adult, consequently inspiring and fuelling the employees' growth in self worth and self-expression. The impact of this approach is that the employee comes to work each day feeling that their 'real self' is both encouraged and valued, rather than having to be checked at the door each morning when they arrive, and collected when they leave.

I have read many leadership books and one that stands out, and is the basis of this article, is Good Business (Leadership, flow and the making of meaning) by Mihaly Csikszebntmihalyi, Professor of Psychology at Claremont Graduate University in California. He wrote the book as a summary of his research into effective leadership in the business world. Csikszentmihalyi was interested in leaders who created a work environment for a meaningful life in which work and the pursuit of financial rewards have their proper places. In other words, a place where employees experience work as increasing their sense of well-being and happiness as distinct from work being a neutral or negative force in this regard (as is so often the case).

From his research Csikszentmihalyi identifies five 'life attitudes' of the business leaders who create these unique places to work. The direct applicability of these five 'life attitudes' to my experience of leadership in recruitment companies (the great, the good, the bad and the ugly) since 1989, is the reason why I have chosen to analyse leadership in the recruitment industry through these five attitudes. The five 'life attitudes' are;

1. Optimism & future-mindedness
2. Trust, honesty and authenticity
3. Perseverance to achieve excellence
4. Curiosity, learning and wisdom
5. Empathy or emotional/social intelligence
For the expanded explaination of each of the five 'life attitudes' check out the RCSA site.

Ross Clennett is a Leadership Coach and Director of Ingennius Coaching. He is a Certified Master Practitioner of NLP and Member of the International Coach Federation. Previously he spent 14 years in the recruitment industry working for Hays, Recruitment Solutions, SACS and Slade Group. Ross facilitates his program Leading Recruitment Teams puplicly, for the RCSA and privately, for a number of recruitment firms nationally.

Colleen Gildea . - . Permalink . - . Today's Bugler . - . Send To a Friend . - . Readership Feedback

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